Bank Group and EC Hold High-Level Consultations

The African Development Bank Group and the European Commission have held high-level consultations in Brussels aimed at starting a process of reinforced cooperation with a view to identifying ways to achieve greater development impact in Africa through effective collaborative efforts.

The two-day event, which took place from September 3-4, 2007, enabled the management and staff of both institutions to focus on trade and regional integration, infrastructure as well as results- and performance-based management.

The meeting, in which the World Bank participated as an observer, was guided by internationally agreed principles on aid effectiveness and donor coordination, including those set forth in the Paris Declaration of March 3, 2005. The Bank Group’s 2008 Medium Term Strategy, the Joint EU-Africa Strategy and the existing tri-partite Memorandum of Understanding between the Bank, the EC and the EIB are setting the context for reinforced partnership.

Given the political importance of the partnership, Bank Group President, Donald Kaberuka, and Director General of DG DEV, Stefano Manservisi, have committed to its effective implementation in particular through a joint action plan. The action plan builds on shared principles and contains joint activities with regard to the consultation’s areas of focus. In addition to these areas, it was agreed that joint activities would also be established in the fields of fragile states, clean energy and climate change, as well as knowledge and economic policies.

The Bank and the EC also agreed to hold annual high-level meetings, with the next one taking place in Tunis in June 2008. Both parties also agreed that future meetings would bring together management and staff from headquarters as well as country teams. Staff of the EIB and the World Bank will also be invited to the next meeting. Furthermore, pilot regions and countries with delegations and field offices, will be identified with a view to increasing cooperation on regional integration and interconnectivity.